With the increasing number of urban and suburban households with pets, particularly dogs, local government authorities have enacted ordinances requiring owners of such pets to clean up after them in order to reduce pedestrian hazards and increase public enjoyment of outdoor recreational facilities.
Various devices have been designed or created to assist owners in cleaning up their pet's feces. However, such tools are for the most part unsanitary and only partially effective. These tools which include scoops for shoveling feces and tongs for grasping waste material need daily washing and leave the remainder of the animal's wastes still spread over the concrete surface of streets or walkways.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,819,220 to Bredt, there is disclosed a sanitary device for pets having the configuration of a walking stick or cane in which a pair of spring arms are fixed to the lower end of a telescopic body portion to spring apart, when fed by its extension from a telescopic sleeve. A disposable receptacle of flexible material having sleeve portions along the opposite sides of its open top is mounted, by sliding the spring arms into the sleeves, so that the top of the receptacle is spread open when the telescopic body portion extends from the sleeve and the arms spring apart.
Likewise, the U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,777,708 to Vogt and No. 3,977,422 to Cabaluna relate to a canine feces disposal mechanism in which the feces do not come in contact with the user and which include a device for holding a litter bag in an open condition for catching dog-egested material and thereby avoiding soiling of the streets and sidewalks.
In spite of the devices disclosed in the above-mentioned patents, particularly the one to Bredt U.S. Pat. No. 3,819,220, there remains a need for a better device, as such devices have significant disadvantages. The Bredt device requires special and expensive waste receptacle bags and in addition, the ends of the spring elements extend beyond the bag and could inflict injury upon the animal.
The Cabaluna device uses an expensive egesting device comprising a gas container in the case on the opposite side of a piston wire mechanism. The Vogt device, like the Bredt device, also requires special waste receptable bags.